The first time you type twelve words and see a complete forest scene appear is truly surreal. As if your keyboard was a paintbrush overnight. These are tools that do not imagine. They simply predict. It is a difference of fact. Every output is a statistical blend of patterns learned from huge image collections - including texture, lighting, composition, and color. When you ask for a melancholic lighthouse at dusk, the model generates something that statistically matches that idea. It is pattern retrieval recommended site disguised as creativity. 
Prompts are everything. In earnest--do as thou wouldst to a workman, not to a genie. Unclear prompts produce unclear results. The generic postcards are created by "Beautiful landscape. Mist rolling over terraced rice fields, late afternoon light, dulled greens and golds, documentary photography style gives you something that you would actually use. The entire game is its specificity. Things get interesting with style transfer. Many tools allow switching styles like photorealism, watercolor, anime, architecture, or 1970s sci-fi art in a single session. One photographer realized she could test shoot ideas quickly without renting studios. She still does real shoots. She now simply takes no time with bad ideas. But hands are another story. Inquire of an ordinary user. Hands generated by AI are notoriously bad. Too many fingers, wrong joints, impossible structures. It is getting better quickly, but fingers are still the canary in the coal mine to detect generated images. The commercial aspect is important. Certain tools grant full usage rights. Some retain licenses. Others only allow commercial use on paid plans. If you are creating business assets, read the terms carefully, at least twice. The aspect ratio and resolution has grown up. Older systems generated low-quality, mushy visuals. Current outputs can be print-ready. This is a major topic for publishing and product design. Learning curve is not steep. It is more of a bizarre incline, flat at first, and then suddenly steep as you discover the extent to which granular prompt control can be. Negative cues (explaining to the model what not to cover) allow a second layer of specificity that most beginners do not even get to. Never has visual ideation been more inexpensive and quicker. It shifts who has the power to build visual ideas.
Prompts are everything. In earnest--do as thou wouldst to a workman, not to a genie. Unclear prompts produce unclear results. The generic postcards are created by "Beautiful landscape. Mist rolling over terraced rice fields, late afternoon light, dulled greens and golds, documentary photography style gives you something that you would actually use. The entire game is its specificity. Things get interesting with style transfer. Many tools allow switching styles like photorealism, watercolor, anime, architecture, or 1970s sci-fi art in a single session. One photographer realized she could test shoot ideas quickly without renting studios. She still does real shoots. She now simply takes no time with bad ideas. But hands are another story. Inquire of an ordinary user. Hands generated by AI are notoriously bad. Too many fingers, wrong joints, impossible structures. It is getting better quickly, but fingers are still the canary in the coal mine to detect generated images. The commercial aspect is important. Certain tools grant full usage rights. Some retain licenses. Others only allow commercial use on paid plans. If you are creating business assets, read the terms carefully, at least twice. The aspect ratio and resolution has grown up. Older systems generated low-quality, mushy visuals. Current outputs can be print-ready. This is a major topic for publishing and product design. Learning curve is not steep. It is more of a bizarre incline, flat at first, and then suddenly steep as you discover the extent to which granular prompt control can be. Negative cues (explaining to the model what not to cover) allow a second layer of specificity that most beginners do not even get to. Never has visual ideation been more inexpensive and quicker. It shifts who has the power to build visual ideas.